MANSFIELD - By the end of next year, all but two of the local McDonald's restaurants will have a new look inside and out, with changes to the menu, too.

It's all part of a $13 million to $15 million investment by the Monica organization and McDonald's.

The Stewart Road McDonald's will be knocked down completely and rebuilt.

Customers who eat inside McDonald's restaurants may have already noticed the new ordering kiosk, added to make ordering more convenient for customers. The food will be delivered to customers' tables. Orders can still be taken at the counter, Jeff Monica, an owner-operator, said Friday.

"People think we're taking workers away, but the kiosk is not to do that. The kiosk is to put more orders back to our kitchen."

Customers will notice a myriad of changes.

"There's even a mobile order app you can use when ordering and we can call the customer when they get on the property to see if they want us to place the order (as opposed to cooking it when the order initially is called in). We have a geo-fence around the restaurant and it picks up your phone when you get here," Monica said.

The inside of the Hanley Road McDonald's re-opened Saturday, after removal of the giant, clear-plastic wrapping that had encased the 100-seat restaurant during the remodel, when only the drive-thru was open to customers.

Monica, along with his brother Larry Monica, owns and operates nine local McDonald's restaurants, including seven in Richland County, one in Crestline and one in Loudonville.

The McDonald's on Lexington-Springmill Road in Ontario was knocked down in 2012 and redone, so it is not on the remodel schedule, Jeff Monica said.

"Loudonville's is open now," Jeff Monica said.

The new inside decor at the Hanley Road McDonald's is called "stone and wood," with three leather couches and five TVs, benches and wide open spaces between tables.

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The front counter and cooking area have a new look at the Hanley Road McDonalds.(Photo11: Jason J. Molyet/News Journal)

Each table has an electrical outlet. Some will have USB outlets, Monica said.

All the Monicas' restaurants are ADA-approved, with up-to-date changes being made.

"And all the menu boards outside at the drive-thru will be digital," he said. "Each store will have a double drive-thru except for Crestline. It will still be a single drive-thru."

"The whole state of Ohio will have the new look by 2020 and that's over 580 stores," Jeff Monica said.

Products are changing too: for example, Quarter Pounders will use fresh and not frozen beef. Jeff Monica said buns will no longer have any preservatives and any coloring of products served at McDonald's will be removed, with the exception of Coca Cola.

McDonald's plans to use all recyclable products by 2025.

Jeff said he and his brother Larry Monica grew up in the business. Their mother, Shirley Monica, recently retired from the business after 40-plus years. Their father, Stewart Monica, died in 2014.

"She is so entrepreneurial," Jeff said. "She was one of the first female workers and an operator at a time when it was unheard of."

"No man, nobody could tell her no," he noted. "She was a building block so other women could become successful in McDonald's.

"At the time it was still a man's world."

Shirley Monica's mother and stepfather owned a few McDonald's outlets in the 1960s, and allowed her to work in the store as a crew member when women were an uncommon presence in the work force. That experience inspired her and her husband Stewart Monica to start their own restaurant. Having become so familiar with how McDonald's operates, they chose the fast-food chain as their first endeavor.

Shirley and Stewart opened a McDonald's in Willoughby, Ohio, in 1972. The family moved to Mansfield in 1978.

The Monica family said Richland County McDonald's customers are among the most generous customers in the state, based on their donations for the Ronald McDonald House containers.

Jeff Monica, who is vice president and treasurer of the Northeast Ohio Cleveland Operators Advertising Association for McDonald's, said, "What we turn into the national, the national matches back," citing local agencies including the Mansfield Area Y, Harmony House, Domestic Violence Shelter, Richland Carrousel Park and The New Store that receive sizeable grants or mini grants upon request.

The Monica McDonald's restaurant business is still a family affair.

Jeff Monica met his wife Laurie at the Hanley Road McDonald's in 1985 when they worked together.

Their daughter Jamie runs the McDonald's restaurant at Ohio 97 in Bellville.

Larry's son Cory is assistant manager at the Richland Mall McDonald's on Lexington-Springmill Road and Larry's daughter Ashley is the general manager at Shelby's McDonald's.